Ocean escape
Posted: August 7, 2019 Filed under: escape, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 6 Comments
I have another scenic card to share featuring the new PB stamp ‘Escape‘. As you can imagine I was very happy to see these scenic stamps in the recent Penny Black release; I love to stamp and paint scenes. It does help to have a technique that enables you to work on the background separately from the foreground. I have used the same technique in the two cards already shared, plus this card and two more to come. It is very similar to a technique Jill Foster often uses and had demonstrated in numerous videos. I use a stamp positioner, I work on the foreground and middle ground images such as trees, grass, and canoes first and when they are completed I emboss over them with clear powder so I can paint the remaining spaces, usually sky, sea, sand or snow with inks or watercolour paints.
Once I am back in my workroom and reunited with my supplies I will try other techniques but I am happy with the way these scenes have worked out. For this particular card I worked on hot pressed watercolour paper and inked the grass and tree foliage with old paper distress ink then stamped. To build up depth and variety I added extra applications of old paper ink to the tree foliage and wild honey ink to the grass and scrubby areas. For the rocky outcrop and tree trunk and branches I used gathered twigs, rusty hinge and ground espresso inks and markers. The stamp includes a narrow line along the horizon which I inked with a stormy sky marker. Once all the stamping was done and dry I inked the whole stamp with versamark and embossed in clear. This step ‘seals’ the previous coloured stamping enabling me to paint or blend over the images without affecting the colours at all.
I painted the sky after adding masking tape along the horizon to protect the sea and land area. I wet the whole sky then painted salty ocean around the edges and scattered straw and wild honey ink in the centre. While the ink was still wet I blotted some colour out with a paper towel or thirsty brush to leave the bright, white sun. Once the sky dried I moved the masking tape an painted the sea in a mix of stormy sky and salty ocean ink then dropped a little wild honey ink under the ‘sun’. To finish I smooshed the tea dye and rusty hinge inks onto my glass mat so I could mix some sand colours to paint the ground. The stamp from ‘destination sentiments‘ set fitted the scene so I added it with ranger archival ground espresso ink.
I took a few photos of a ‘Bonny Hills’ sunrise last week when visiting my brother and sister-in-law so I’ll leave you with one of those. My sister-in-law gets up every morning and takes the dog for a walk on the beach before she goes to work or starts her day. Two mornings I was there I slept way past sunrise and she showed me her beautiful photos later (kind but cruel!) Another morning I woke up ready to go and it was raining. The final morning I was there I joined her for her walk and enjoyed a lovely sunrise.
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Stamps: Escape (PB), Destination sentiments (PB)
Calm waters
Posted: August 5, 2019 Filed under: calm waters, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 8 Comments
If you are stamping or painting canoes one of them has to be red doesn’t it? When I saw this scene in the recent PB release I knew I would stamp and paint it to have a red canoe. The stamp is called ‘calm waters‘.
I kept my hot pressed watercolour paper panel in the stamp positioner for almost the whole time I was working on this project because I was adding colour little by little. I started with the stand of trees across the lake and stamped them in old paper distress ink, it is a pale green over which I knew I could add darker inks. I added some peeled paint and forest moss ink to the stamp with markers to give shadow and depth to the trees then added ground espresso ink to the base of the trees and along the land jutting out behind the grass. On my last few applications of ink I spritzed a little water on the stamp to make the colours blend.
On the other side of the stamp I inked the grasses in fossilized amber ink, stamped then added some peeled paint ink to the base of the grasses again spritzing the stamp to blend the colour a little. I inked the water’s edge on the far side and the near side with weathered wood ink and blended it with a paint brush.
To do the canoes I inked first the red canoe with a candied apple distress marker and painted it with extra ink smooshed onto my glass mat. I stamped the base, paddles and seats in the canoe with fossilized amber and when the ink dried I outlined the canoe rim with a black soot marker. I stamped the second canoe with rusty hinge ink and mixed some with candied apple to paint the inside and outside.
As I had stamped the shore in weathered wood I was able to blend some of the ink with a paintbrush and water and add some fossilized amber here and there to give the shore grey and yellow tinges. After I had added all that colour I waited until the panel was dried then heat embossed it with clear powder before painting the sky and water.
With the embossing protecting the land and canoes I was able to paint the sky over the top half of the panel easily. I used salty ocean ink to make this scene a sunny one ( I think I’ll do another with a moody thunderstormy sky!) I used salty ocean for the lake also but added weathered wood to darken the blue. While the lake was still wet (when isn’t the lake wet!?) I dropped in some ground espresso and peeled paint ink to make soft reflections of the trees.
This technique is basically the same one I used for my windmill card but there was a lot more detail to work on with this scene before I embossed. If you don’t want a shiny embossed layer on your finished card you can iron it off when all the painting has been done. I ironed this panel face down onto a few pieces of computer paper which absorbed the sticky embossing. After my recent Australian themed scenic card, I think this one is a little more Canadian.
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Outback life
Posted: August 2, 2019 Filed under: country life, Penny Black | Tags: Penny Black stamps, Ranger Distress inks 23 Comments
It’s been very quiet here on the blog as I have been in Australia since late June. The circumstances of the trip were unexpected and very sad but the time here with family has been precious. My husband and I along with his brother and sister spent most of July in Alice Springs which is a surrounded by desert in the middle of Australia. The landscape is not unlike the scene pictured above.
This stamp, ‘Country Life‘, is one of the scenic ones from the recent Penny Black ‘Dreaming’ release. It was probably not designed with the Australian outback in mind but that is the direction I decided to go. ( I made this card before I knew I was coming to Australia but it is a match for some of the scenery I’ve seen lately)
I started by stamping the windmill and grasses in wild honey, rusty hinge, gathered twigs and black soot distress ink. I used markers and ink pads to darken the colour moving down the structure. The base of the windmill and the grass silhouettes were completely black so they would be visible even when I added a dark background. The ‘wild honey’ sections of the windmill appear to be reflecting the last rays of sun in the evening. It is winter in Alice Springs right now so the days are short; I was surprised each day by the early nightfall. Once the windmill and scrubby bits of grass were stamped to my satisfaction I inked the whole stamp in versamark and embossed in clear powder. This is a technique I have seen Jill Foster use on scenic stamping. With all the colour on the windmill and grass ‘sealed’ in by embossing I was able to add all the background colour without altering the windmill or grass at all.
To create the background I placed a post-it note across the horizon and used brushes to blend a wild honey, salty ocean and blueprint sketch sky. I changed the position of the post-it to mask the sky so I could blend gathered twigs and rusty hinge ink over the ground.
Here’s a photo I took in Alice a couple of weeks ago. Blue skies every day and red dirt everywhere!
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Filled in Florals
Posted: July 8, 2019 Filed under: Concord & 9th, filled in florals, simple serif alphabet dies, Wendy Vecchi | Tags: Concord & 9th, Ranger Distress inks, Ranger Distress stains, Wendy Vecchi, WOW embossing powders 3 Comments
I’m on the Foiled Fox blog today showing off these lovely new stamps and dies from Concord & 9th. The stamps are from the ‘filled in florals‘ set and the dies from the simple serif alphabet set I love the size and shape of these letters and I am able to line them up neatly by using my new magnetic ‘staytion‘ so I won’t need to do the purposely wonky look every time!
I reached for some favourite distress stains to colour the big flower from the set. I used a stamp positioner but acrylic blocks would work fine too as precision is not key for this loose and watery look. As I’m still working with distress stain daubers I swiped the first colour across a third of the stamp, stamped on hot pressed watercolour paper then wiped off the stamp before inking with the next stain in the centre of the flower then repeating the process. I only spritzed the stamp lightly with water before I stamped the last colour on each flower as I didn’t want to flood the design but I did want to make sure the colours did a little blending with each other. I used a mix of blueprint sketch, salty ocean, seedless preserves and dusty concord stains on the flowers switching around the order and combo each time. I stamped the flower centres with blueprint sketch and seedless preserves ink. Is there a more beautiful colour combination than those two stains? I don’t think so!
For the leaves I switched to an acrylic block and inked with bundled sage and iced spruce stains and a little spritz of water to make them soft and dreamy. I dried the whole panel before dropping water here and there all over, letting it sit and soak in then absorbing it with a paper towel to leave all those watermarks on the leaves and petals. Last but not least I added a splat or two in blueprint sketch and bundled sage.
Once all those flowers were done I thought about the sentiment. I know I should consider the sentiment earlier in the process but I rarely do. I didn’t want to cover up too much of the design so I went for the subtle stacked letter die look. I cut the letters b e s t out of the panel and three more of each from blank watercolour paper then stacked them up and attached them on the card. I did some stamp surgery to separate ‘you’re the’ from one of the sentiment stamps in the ‘filled in florals’ set and stamped in versamark ink so I could emboss in white powder. The sentiment is fairly subtle when you look straight on but the recipient will be able to see and feel the texture of the raised letters.
Thank you for dropping in today, make sure you pop on over to the Foiled Fox for some extra details and to check out their lovely blog and store.
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Studio Katia blog hop winner
Posted: June 23, 2019 Filed under: Studio Katia 2 Comments
Denise BryantWow… gorgeous floral design and beautiful coloring!
Studio Katia birthday blog hop
Posted: June 14, 2019 Filed under: floral garden, grid stencil, it's your birthday, Studio Katia | Tags: Peerless Transparent Watercolors, Ranger Distress inks, Studio Katia 77 Comments
Hello and welcome to Studio Katia 3rd Anniversary Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from May Sukyong Park‘s blog. I am excited to be celebrating with Studio Katia and to be featuring this gorgeous stamp, ‘Floral Garden‘. It’s a beauty and perfect for a range of different techniques. This new release includes 5 new Clear Stamp Sets and 1 set of Coordinating Dies, 1 new Stand Alone Creative Die, 2 new Stencils and lots of new Embellishments!
I used the emboss resist technique for one panel and no-line colouring for another. The stamp is a large square so I had the option of creating a big square card or a smaller rectangle card with a portion of the stamped design. I embossed the outline stamp in gold powder on hot pressed watercolour paper then did all the painting with my Sennelier watercolours. I’ve talked about colour choices on the blog before especially about keeping the colour count low to keep things looking cohesive.
I started by painting the tulips in red straight from the pan but all the other colours are mixed, usually with a bit of the original red, that way they work well beside each other. I used a green paint mixed with a little red, a purple/red mix on the roses then a blue/purple mix on the tiny flowers.
I trimmed the panel down and matted it with gold cardstock to match the embossing then layered it on a panel stenciled with festive berries ink through the SK grid stencil . I added a sentiment in dusty concord archival ink using a little stamp from the new ‘Its your birthday‘ set.
The no-line watercolour panel I stamped in antique linen on hot pressed watercolour paper. I used distress inks as paint by pressing them face down on my glass mat. I used wild honey and carved pumpkin inks for the tulips then mixed some wild honey with festive berries for the roses. As I kept my panel in the stamp positioner while painting I was able to ink the roses lightly with festive berries after I’d done some painting and re-stamp the outline for added definition. I painted the little flowers in wilted violet ink and over-stamped with the same ink so the outlines would be a little darker. I used two greens (iced spruce and bundled sage) for the leaves mixing them into darker and lighter tones. The tiny bell flowers around the edges are painted in antique linen. I also blended antique linen around the edges of the panel.
The sentiment is from the same ‘It’s your birthday’ set and I love that pretty lettering! I stamped in monarch versafine clair ink, clear embossed then stamped again in versamark and embossed once more in clear powder to make it extra shiny. Thanks for joining me today; keep reading for all the ways to win during this blog hop which runs today and tomorrow. Studio Katia has provided a $25 gift certificate for me to give away. Just leave a comment below to be in the running.
For more chances to win visit all the stops along the hop. Your next stop is with the wonderful Laura Bassen. If you get lost you can find the full hop list below or visit Studio Katia Blog!
There will be a $25 Gift Certificate offered at each stop of the Blog Hop
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https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?1559654439292
You & Me
Posted: June 12, 2019 Filed under: City stacks, Concord & 9th, Peerless watercolours, simple serif alphabet | Tags: Concord & 9th, Peerless Transparent Watercolors 4 Comments
This wonderful new C&9 alphabet stamp set arrived a few days ago and, oh the possibilities! I had only a little time to play with it today so I pulled out the delightful ‘city stacks’ stamps, also from Concord & 9th. I stamped in versafine onyx black ink and watercoloured with my peerless watercolour paints. Versafine is a pigment ink so it won’t react with water when I start painting over it.
The sky and the road I blended onto the panel with makeup brushes which was quite a bit quicker than painting it. I used broken china, scattered straw and wild honey distress inks for a sunrise look.
When I laid out the letters in my stamp positioner I wondered how long it would take me to get them lined up. I got them right on the second attempt! I slipped in a piece of acetate to do a trial stamping, realigned the few that needed it and then the next attempt was just right. The serifs at the top and bottom of the letters make it easy to line them up on the grid of my stamp positioner lid. Yay! I used part of a stamp from the ‘city stacks’ set to finish the sentiment at the bottom of the panel.
You’ll be seeing these letters again, and again. Count on it. And there are dies too, I didn’t use them on this card but it won’t be long.
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Color Trio Challenge winners
Posted: June 11, 2019 Filed under: Challenges 2 CommentsToday’s the day I get to announce the
Thank you to everyone who participated; there was so much inspiration in the link up. The Foiled Fox and I are happy to announce
Please contact The Foiled Fox to receive your $45 gift card for use in the Foiled Fox online store and feel free to post the badge below on your blog.
Here are the winning three colour cards: a stenciled beauty and an eyecatching masked dandelion
Inky floral background
Posted: June 7, 2019 Filed under: Catherine Pooler inks, floral background, My Favorite Things, The Stamp Market | Tags: Catherine Pooler inks, My Favorite Things, The Stamp Market 8 Comments
I’m still in yellow-orange-red mode, quite unusual for me. I can assure you the blues and pinks will return! I’ve been wanting to ink up the lovely floral background from The Stamp Market again ever since I gave it the rainbow treatment. With the stamp in the MISTI I stamped first with Catherine Pooler shea butter ink on hot pressed watercolour paper. Next I did partial inking with CP samba ink. As you can see I wasn’t particularly accurate with the second colour but I did try to apply it to flowers not leaves. I spritzed the stamp and stamped again. I switched over to leaves and inked them with CP eucalyptus ink, spritzed and stamped again.
I had managed to catch a lot of the leaves with the ink pad but not all so I switched techniques and pressed the eucalyptus ink onto an acrylic block and picked ink up with a brush to apply to the smaller leaves and stems on the stamp. This worked really well so I pressed the ‘rockin red’ ink on the acrylic block also and used a paintbrush to apply it to the centres of the flowers. There is quite of bit of bleed from one flower or leaf to the next but the overall effect is semi realistic.
I added black centres to the flowers with a black fine tip marker and they popped nicely so I decided on a black embossed sentiment too, it’s from MFT brushstroke expressions. When I embossed the black sentiment in clear powder it also stuck to the flower centres which I wasn’t expecting, giving them a little shine. At this point I was almost happy but not convinced the design was finished. It needed…a frame! I pulled out my new ‘stay-tion’ magnetic board and the black fine tip marker. Lining up frames and borders like this is one of the reasons I really like the new magnetic board. I lined up my panel with the grid on the board, held the panel in place with magnets then positioned the magnetic ruler across the panel ¼” from the edge. I was able to line up the ends of the ruler with the ¼” grid on the board and ruled a thin black line on each side. So satisfying to not mess that up!
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Feathers, CAS & calm
Posted: June 5, 2019 Filed under: Brusho, CAS, Catherine Pooler inks, Challenges, Concord & 9th, Feathered die set, Feathered stamp set, Leaf Canopy | Tags: Altenew, Brusho, Catherine Pooler inks, Concord & 9th 9 Comments
I finally got my act together enough to enter a challenge and not even in the last few minutes it was open! I just hosted a challenge with the Foiled Fox and we will be announcing winners in the next few days. I enjoyed visiting all the entries and was inspired by each card. Today’s card was inspired by the ‘Ombre’ challenge at CAS Mix Up and I will be entering it in the ‘Calm’ challenge at Casology as well.
Before I talk about this calm and clean and simple and ombre card I just want to thank those who joined the conversation on Monday about ‘bunchies’. I posted a photo on Monday of myself, aged 6, with my hair in ‘bunchies’ and asked what others called the two ponytail style. I was surprised to read they were known as ‘dog ears’ and ‘dust mops’ as well as the more common ‘pigtails’. One reader called them ‘bunches’ which is practically the same as me so I was not alone with that tag.
Back to the feather, I used the solid feather stamp from the C&9 Feathered set and Catherine Pooler inks to create the watercolour ombre look. The coverage and blending is just what I was after. Like some dye inks the colours continue to soak in and smooth out after stamping with the CP inks which is exactly what I needed for this look. I inked the whole stamp in ‘shea butter’ ink, stamped then inked two thirds in ‘bellini’ ink, spritzed and stamped, then finished by inking the tip in ‘rockin red’ ink, spritzed and stamped. The little spritz over the ink spread the ink on the stamp so there were no hard lines where one ink stopped or started.
I dry embossed the whole panel with the snowfall/speckles texture fade folder for a bit more visual interest and popped up the sentiment from the same stamp set. Did you know embossing folders are enjoying a rise in popularity these days? I don’t know if that is true or not, I just know they are around here! The CAS mix up challenge required ombre + stamping + my choice (embossing), so all boxes checked! There are a few metallic ombre looks featured on the challenge blog; I’ve never thought of metallic ombre but it is pretty fancy so I might have to give it a try.
My second card is not entering any challenges; it was made because I love pairing sectioned stamps with sprinkled brusho. I embossed the sectioned feather from the same C&9 set in gold three times on hot pressed watercolour paper, sprinkled sandstone and terracotta brusho powder over the top then spritzed water gently to activate the brusho. I added more brusho and spritzing several times and then moved some paint around with a paintbrush, not much just a few places so there would be a few more solid sections. I die cut the feathers then popped them up on a different dry embossed background, ‘weathered’ by Taylored Expressions. The sentiment is from the Altenew set, ‘leaf canopy’.
Click on the badges below to see what’s happening in the challenges I’m entering.
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Heather Telford 
